A portion of a Nintendo Station interview with Maestro Interactive Games...

NS: I saw you guys are teaming up with Notion Games for Super Ubi Land. What did you guys see from the game and Notion Games to make you think this would be a good match?

M: First, lets talk about Andrew, the founder of Notion Games for a moment. He is a jack-of-all-trades type of guy. He essentially built this game Super Ubi Land from the ground up all by himself. My team played the game and really enjoyed it. What we loved most about it was its homage to SNES and NES platforming games. The challenges of those titles was something we really enjoyed. I remember playing the SNES Donkey Kong Country and falling off the course over and over again in the mine cart and thinking, “Argh! I was almost to the goal!” I think it’s incredibly important to preserve that kind of suspense and challenge in games. Super Ubi Land does that amazingly and we wanted to develop the Wii U version. It is a game with a broad appeal that all sorts of people can play.

NS: Does the Wii U look like a console that you guys would be willing to make games for? Is it a “beggars can’t be choosers” mentality for a young company?

M: Yes, we are planning to develop for the Wii U. We already have a few titles lined up that are perfect for the console and for the GamePad experience. I do not feel that developing for the Wii U is a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation. I think if you can get onto a console like the Wii U, you reach a more dedicated fan base of gamers. On the app store, you are competing for millions of users in a sea of titles that are all in the race to the bottom, but with Nintendo, the opportunity is there. There are less titles in the space, each one is of high quality, so the customer does not have to worry that they are getting something that is not worth the price. The value for the money is there, so as a developer its perfect. Also it is a new console, so the market is going to continue growing, where as the App Store, is roughly seven years old, and as a developer if you are late to the party, you’ll have a tough time getting a drink so to speak, unless you are a VIP, like the “AAA” developers that are now emerging in the mobile space. Because the Wii U is still in the early stages, I see it as the perfect opportunity for a growing company to expand alongside it.